Conventionally, inkjet recording devices to record given images on recording media such as sheets or plastic thin plates by ejecting ink have been proposed and put into practical use. An inkjet recording device is provided with an inkjet head (hereinafter referred to also as a head) having a nozzle. As such an inkjet head is allowed to move in a predetermined direction, ink is ejected from the nozzle toward a recording medium, whereby a given image is recorded on the recording medium.
Incidentally, in some cases, an ink used for the above inkjet recording device is supplied to a head located in a carriage from an ink supply container via an ink supply pipe.
In this ink supply mechanism, since the carriage in which a head is mounted is scanned, the pressure of an ink supplied to the head is varied by acceleration/deceleration and vibration. In this case, the ink meniscus position of the nozzle of the head is shifted, whereby problems are produced in which density non-uniformity is produced and in the worst case, the meniscus is broken, resulting in the impossibility of ejection.
Further, as a countermeasure against such phenomena, conventionally, a constitution is proposed in which a damper is arranged in the upstream of a head as shown in Patent Document 1 to absorb pressure variation during ink supply.
In Patent Document 1, an inkjet recording device is disclosed in which air chambers are provided in the ink inflow pipeline for the head and the ink outflow pipeline channel to provide a damper function.
Still further, there are proposed those in which an air chamber is arrange inside the head to provide a damper function (for example, refer to Patent Documents 2-4).
In Patent Document 2, an inkjet head is disclosed in which a plurality of air chambers adjacent to a common ink chamber of the head to retain gas in the interior are provided to provide a damper function. Further, in Patent Document 3, an inkjet head is disclosed in which an air chamber adjacent to a common ink chamber of the head to retain air absorbing pressure variation traveling in an ink inside the common ink chamber is provided. In Patent Document 4, an inkjet head is disclosed in which an opening and closing valve adjacent to a common ink chamber of the head to open and close an air chamber and an air vent communicatively connected via the air chamber is provided.